Friday 18 May 2012

A towering Malay's fistful of ringgits

I do wonder what went through Guan Eng's mind when he decided to offer Tunku Aziz that RM50k a year job as "compensation" for not extending the latter's senator-ship following the DAP's Bersih row.

Would he had made the offer if Tunku Aziz was a respected "towering" Chinese or Indian?

Somehow, I suspect that  he would not dare to make that offer if not because Tunku Aziz is a Malay.

Anyway, I think RM50k a year is rather stingy leh. That's just over RM4k a month. What la you Guan Eng, want to bribe, bribe properly la. Tunku Aziz is a towering person, ok?

Maybe to Guan Eng, Tunku Aziz's towering is just of the Melayu variety only...but still la Mr Chief Minister, the guy is still towering, ok? You all DAP people who gave him that label, what. Whatever it is, his honor and dignity should worth more than that, I think

I wonder how much is the price of honor and dignity of these other DAP's towering Malays in this picture here with Guan Eng..


This whole thing actually reminds me of an incident several years ago. A good friend, who works for a rich towkey called me up just a few days before Hari Raya asking for my bank account numbers. He said his towkey wants to give me duit raya. I tried very hard not to get angry as I didn't want to lose a friend just because he went stupid for awhile. I politely told him I can't do such a thing, upon which he immediately said the money was not a bribe. Just duit raya, what, he said. Furthermore, he said his towkey will get angry if he fails to give the money to me. At that point, I lose my patient and quietly told him to bank in the money into his own account. I then hanged up.

A bribe is a bribe, ok? I don't think the towkey would want to simply simply give me duit raya if not because of my professional position. And being offered a bribe while fasting during Ramadhan, was actually quite insulting.

However, I tried to reason with myself that the towkey and my friend (who happened to be an Indian) didn't mean any harm as they may had thought it's normal for Malays to receive such "gifts" due to their duit raya tradition. After all the towkey and my friend are really nice people. They may probably be just mistaken about the Malays' tradition and their sense of values. Maybe, they have come to believe that the Malays had developed a sense of justification for that sorts of things and accorded a certain degree of acceptance to the culture of corruption.

Well, my friends, you all got it wrong, ok? Only corrupted Malays are like that. Not all Malays, ok? 

Anyway, what is this duit raya thing in the first place? Where did the Malays learn to give money to the visiting  children (and later on adults) during Hari Raya? I do believe the Malays, at one point in time adopted this "tradition" from somewhere, probably from the ang pow giving practice during Chinese New Year or giving of gifts during Christmas.

By the way, I never give duit raya during Aidil Fitri celebrations because I don't believe in the practice. I think it teaches kids to be materialistic. That's why I am not a big hit among my nephews and nieces.

27 comments:

  1. BIGCAT the kids just merely kids...i for one look forward to the duit raya...but you must be a man of principle. Yep i do get duit ray form my supplier but i told them even thou i take it, they will not get any projects if they dont deserve it and they wull smile and said we gave because of raya not projects...and i reply i take that note seriously maybe they wont give me anymore next raya.... still have some older relatives that we will give me duit raya so its ok

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  2. does CAT mean kucing ?

    they can throw a fish at the kucing and the kucing will grab it.

    maybe kucing semangkok will do it.

    alim alim kucing

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    1. Cat nice...but aiya...you sure dont know much about Pigs......you throw anything to them, they will eat one ma. They oso say you are what you eat ;P

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  3. the chinese first started this bribe culture since 5000 years ago.

    its part of their history and culture and now part of their life.

    dont blame them la

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    Replies
    1. UMNO is continuing the culture every minute of the day , 24 -7-365 !

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    2. Yes , but UMNO is keeping the culture very much alive , 24-7-365 !
      " You help me , I help you !"
      But even then , you have to "kopi" them even after the promise

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  4. I think you should just back off from saying that this is a bribe ... he was offered a job, for God sake ... if this is bribe, then tun M, and badawi were also bribed ... as 'adviser' in Proton, MAS ... and i don't think they are paid 50k per yr ... oh by the way, proton and MAS are bleeding money .. so,they definitely are not good at what they were paid to do ...

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    1. Tunku Aziz was offerred the 'bribe' after he indicated he wanted to quit DAP. So the offer was given as a carrot so as not to quit and cause embarassment to DAP at the time when DAP has no other credible Malay in the party. I think the matter was badly handled by both Guan eng and zairil that Tunku Aziz felt insulted by it.
      In case of Tun M & Badawi, BN was never in any such embarassing circumstances when they were made advisers of Proton & MAS.
      How in the world did anon 23.19 equate the Tunku Aziz'z situation to be similar as Tun M & Badawi's appointments as advisers?

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    2. Tun Abdullah was bundled out of his PMship too. Embrarassing circumtances AFTER the Tuns were made advisors - don't you know that Proton and MAS are bleeding litres of blood every day? 2 (pun intended) many leeches and just how much more than RM50K/per year are their stipend?
      Guan Eng and Zairil indeed handled the situation badly. Tunku wanted to stay on in the Senate but they demoted him by offering him a Penang Insitute fellowship. I don't think of the RM50K plus travelling expenses as a bribe. Don't you think that there should be perks and benefits along with the job? Did'nt your employer mention those benefits when you were offered a job?
      Probably Tunku thought it an insult to be offered so little. But he already had his revenge in the public outpouring of his venom and Guan Eng has been put in his shoes properly too. Getting too big for his boots lah!

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  5. Yes chinese has the civilisation 5000 years ago and the emperor and high official made their demands. But where are the people in the Penisular? Only Orang asli. But now, all those Robcops and Majlis do not hang around keramat but in starhill, or half hill jungle waiting like the toll gates

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    1. even chin peng & the gang try to bribe orang asli in the jungle in order to survive.

      bribe happens everywhere....

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    2. yeah everything seemed fine till that bunch of greedy, warring 5,000 yr old no-wash- butthole tongkang civilization landed our shores and brought with them their mafias and triads and their worship of the $$$$ God.

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    3. hippocrite. Majority humans (malays included) also sayang duit - how else to survive in this world if you live in civilisation...unless you are in the jungle no need money. lets be practical. bribe/ gift/ salary..whatever u want to call it. Then why do many muslim government staff accept that so called " bribe" money?
      haha this is is amusing. if not then please abolish the 30% NEP thing, the 5% discount on house buying etc.....since you say you are not hadap for money. And dont hint or ask for bribes.

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  6. Bigcat,

    Raya was the only time I cud make some fulus bcos we had a big family. I still give to kids of relatives - along with a nice tabung wrapped up (the kind you have to break to open and with a small slit so no korek2 ). Challenge them to fill it up till next raya, get something worthwhile etc. Teaches kids to manage their money/expenses. There's no escape from it in this world . I do wish my parents were more savvy about it with me.

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  7. karang kasi lebeh, ter-qualify as Suap pulak. Go easy, lots more where its coming from ...hehe . We got this angpow tradition from who do u think?

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  8. tuhan depa pun dirasuah dengan piring piring kuih dan buah limau jer

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  9. Nama pun angpow bebbb...lepas dia bagi angpow, hang pun kena pow kowkow....budaya sapa lah gamak nya tu dan siapa pulak pandai pandai cilok dan amalkan....jadi dengan puak puak yang sebegini, behati hati lah dalam apa jua urusan anda...ada ubi ada batas

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  10. 5000 years ago, there are only Orang Alsi in malaya. Too bad, Cheng Ho who came to malaya a few times is none other than a muslim. He should not have step a shore. Also China in the past build the walls to keep out muslims and now china has a big population many times more than malaya. China learn from the western and nothern borders but people coming in. So the ideas are those from the Mongols, tartans and manchurians.

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    1. Cheng Ho was a Muslim is a myth not a fact lah. Debunked already.

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  11. Malas nak cakap pasal that indecent offer from Guan Demagogue Eng to Tunku Aziz, but Aiyo, no duit raya for the nieces and nephews..so stingy.

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    1. Hehehe...I can give pocket money to the kids la, but not during Hari Raya. I don't really like the idea we copy other people's tradition for our Hari Raya. But then again it's just my personal opinion. You ok with it then it's fine la :-)

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    2. Of course, life is too short, we ought to do what we think is right :)

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  12. 500 years ago Cheng Ho left some of his servant in Malacca and they later known as Baba and Nyonya and they respect the local culture - wear kebaya, speak fluent Malay, can sing dondang sayang and so on.

    but the chinese that British bring to Tanah Melayu dont know how to respect the local culture. Instead they bring the bribe culture with them. worst, after 3 generation still dont know how to read Bahasa Melayu to take up oath. still want to be wakil penduduk some more

    haiya, manyak susah looo.... semua mau sapu. talak malu looo

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    1. Chinese in Malaysia also bring pen drive or thumb drive to the world, we have the Bond Girl, Tai Chi girl and freedom girl acting as leader of Burma. On the other hand, we have Bank Bumi pookai twice, Mas pookai 3 times, malaysian shipping once by the locals.

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  13. ini semua salah Umno.

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    Replies
    1. EXACTLY!. willing receiver, prompts willing giver..No receiver, no giver. simple as that.

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  14. After 5000 years when they speak malay and sing dondang sayang, and come before the Portugese and Siamese Thai, how come they are not Bumis? How come Javanese or Malduri or Pakistanese or whites from Bosnia who come recently can become one even some cannot sing dondang sayang. BTW, where is the Kebaya except SIA and MAS have them on display?

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